Apple lifts non-disclosure on iPhone software details

After months when developers have rankled and complained about being unable to discuss the best ways to develop for the iPhone, Apple has lifted its NDA - to cheers. Now, how about those App Store guidelines?

We put the NDA in place because the iPhone OS includes many Apple inventions and innovations that we would like to protect, so that others don't steal our work. It has happened before. While we have filed for hundreds of patents on iPhone technology, the NDA added yet another level of protection. We put it in place as one more way to help protect the iPhone from being ripped off by others.

But there was a downside..

However, the NDA has created too much of a burden on developers, authors and others interested in helping further the iPhone's success, so we are dropping it for released software. Developers will receive a new agreement without an NDA covering released software within a week or so. Please note that unreleased software and features will remain under NDA until they are released.

And let's not forget how it came about:

Thanks to everyone who provided us constructive feedback on this matter.

This also means that the book that was planned on developing for the iPhone can go ahead - and that at least one London company that was planning to offer an iPhone development course, and would otherwise have had to have signed its students to NDAs themselves before they could come in, can breathe a bit easier.